Second Life, the Net Generation, E-book Readers and E-learning’s Market

Second Life

The BBC recently asked what has happened to Second Life, noting that media interest had ebbed away, and that that had affected some corporate investment because of a lack of publicity. Limitations on running SL on mobile devices were also not helping. They’re wrong, said Linden Labs, reporting a 23% increase in users over the last year, with 75,000 UK logins in October.

The New York Times asked two novelists to try Kindles. Joseph Finder liked “the convenience of being able to lug a huge pile of books in one slim device”. He found the screen readable but bemoaned the typography and lack of a decent index. Lee Child thought there were advantages to having a consistent font.

E-learning’s Market

At a time when economic hardship looms, a Sheffield company has produced a report on the UK e-learning market in 2009. The report suggests that the annual size of the UK e-learning industry is currently between £300m and £450m, with growth forecast at between 6.7% and 8% per annum.